Collaboration Feb.

13th
By: Patrick Murphy

Discussion Questions
Do you believe in the Time Wasting gap? Or are some time wasters beneficial? How will our generation be better or worse at monitoring children online? What do we think of Obamas recent announcements on Digital literacy? o http://techwire.net/president-obama-fcc-put-flesh-bones-next-gen-broadbandpromise-schools-libraries/ Do you agree with any of the new ideas for collaborative education that were discussed in the Article by Sanger? In CS 498 do you think that you learn more in class or online? Are we undergoing a transformation of the media landscape (Printing press for example) from print to online text? How long do you see Wikipedias donation based business model remaining successful as more and more information is cataloged to the internet? Should Wikipedia create a formal role system? Should they have a reputation point system? As the internet progresses, do you foresee the need for new roles in Wikipedia? Will any disappear/become irrelevant?

Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era Matt Richtel (2012)

Digital Divide: Economic inequality between groups cause unequal access, use, or knowledge of ICTs. o In 1990s the term helped inspire efforts to increase ITC access for low income families. o Efforts had unintended side effect: New divide The New Divide: Children in low income families are now spending more time with ITCs. o Caused by inability of low income parents to monitor and limit access. o FCC proposed $200 million to create Digital Literacy Corps in schools and libraries o 65% of American households have broadband 40% in households earning less than $20k 50% of Hispanic households have broadband 59% of African American households have broadband o A study in 2010 found children of parents who do not have a college degree spend 11.5 hours per day exposed to media An increase of 4 hours and 40 minutes per day since 1999. Children of educated parents used 10 hours per day a 3.5 hour increase from 1999 o Instead of closing the achievement gap, theyre widening the time-wasting gap. o Without proper supervision kids often are unproductive or misuse technology

Individual Knowledge in the Internet Age Larry Sanger (2010)

The internet has brought upon new Ideas on education

With abundance of information online, is it necessary to memorize as much information. o Individual learning vs Collaboration learning o Books static one way conversations are not good as knowledge co-constructed by a group Unnecessary Memorization o Some people claim that with the wealth of knowledge provided by websites like Wikipedia, people can memorize less and look up the rest. o There are certain things you just cant google. (experience, critical thinking, ect) o Where do we draw the line of what is and isnt trivial? o It is important to understand the concepts that are built on to learn more complicated material Outmoded Individual Learning o Authors View on Collaborative learning online: Can be excellent method of exchanging written ideas Good for obtaining free public reviews of students work o Brown and Adler define social learning as: Understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content, interactions with others about problems or actions. Focus on how we learning not what we are learning. Social learning could not replace these individual activities - Reading, writing, critical thinking, and calculation The individual must at some point check to see if they can complete the work themselves. Boring Old Books o Books: not interactive, static, one-way conversation with an individual. o Shriky says we are undergoing a transformation of the media landscape. o While often books containing vast knowledge are dry and written in difficult to understand vernacular, it is important for us as a civilization to retain our ability to comprehend long difficult texts written by individuals.

Finding Social Roles in Wikipedia Welser, Cosley, Kossinets

Finding Social Roles o Roles in social interaction, online and in Wikipedia. There are few formal roles on Wikipedia, however many users recognize some informal roles. Formal: Admin and Bureaucrat Informal: Fighting vandals, welcoming new users, managing the featured article process This study will investigate the informal roles to understand the coordination problem of a collective action can be addressed through community processes. o The study analyzed the roles based on the qualities: Behavioral regularities Distinctive network position:

Structure of social action: Self-identification: Socially recognized type: Abstract Categories: o The study uses patterns in contributions to identify the signatures of each role o Socially meaningful roles in Wikipedia Substantive experts: extensive knowledge on a topic, efficiently contribute and resolve issues. Typically invest time in fact checking and article talk. Technical Editors: Typically edit things like grammar, formatting, spelling ect. They do less to contribute expert knowledge. Counter Vandalism: Find vandalism with tools like recent changes page, antivandalism bots, or by watching particular users. Revert errors, do little to add new information to articles. Social Networkers: Those who make use of the article talk to make Wiki friends They often collaborate on projects associated with Wikipedia culture Methods o Directed sample Handpicked contributors who based on the types and content of their edits, as well as user pages seemed to perform certain roles. Analysis o Distribution of edits (Content talk, user pages, user talk, Wikipedia, Infrastructure(Templates and more))

Wikipedia provides many ways for users to participate. Users learn more of these features as they develop their expertise. Once users get to a high level of participation they are continue to be active.